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Berserk: The Golden Age Arc
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc is a trilogy of anime films adapted from Kentarou Miura's ''Berserk'' manga. The films cover the same titular story arc as the 1997 anime and serve as a prequel to the 2016 anime. They were written by , directed by , scored by (with providing the opening theme), and developed by . The three films were the first installments in a now-shelved "Berserk Saga Project" aiming to adapt the entire manga. Story I - The Egg of the King The film covers the portion of the Golden Age Arc from Guts' first encounter with the Band of the Falcon to Griffith telling Charlotte of his views on friendship, differing from the manga as follows: * Guts enters the castle through a siege tower and is shown quickly leaping ahead of the pack. * While Casca and Corkus discuss the flow of the battle, Guts takes a quick look in Griffith's direction before turning back to the battlefield. This action appears to affect Griffith to some extent. * Guts' first battle as a member of the Falcons is not included. * When both Griffith and Guts rush in for a joint attack on Zodd, Guts only damages his arm as opposed to severing it, skipping when Zodd demonstrates his ability to reattach severed limbs. * Guts never tries to visit Griffith after he wakes up from the battle with Zodd. Instead, the following scene involves Guts cutting at the air in frustration and a recovering Griffith interrupting him. * Minister Foss is absent. II - The Battle for Doldrey The film covers the portion of the Golden Age Arc from the battle against Adon to Griffith's torture after Guts departs from the Band of the Falcon, with the following differences from the manga: * Samson is not featured or mentioned during Guts' fight against a hundred of Adon's men. * Adon is captured by the Falcons, used by Casca's group to infiltrate Doldrey before he fights Casca. * Guts' sword does not break in his battle against Boscogn. Consequently, Zodd does not appear to throw his own sword from the cliff for the swordsman to use in the battle. * The Queen of Midland does not conspire with Minister Foss and the other nobles to assassinate Griffith. In fact, the second attempt on Griffith's life is completely written out of the film. * The Falcons enjoy themselves during the victory celebration instead of being apprehensive, and appear much more adept at adopting noble lives; Guts and Casca cheerfully dance with one another. * Farnese, Serpico, and Azan make a cameo during the King of Midland's speech; the former two even notice Guts as he surveys the scene. * After Guts leaves the Falcons, he passes by a merchant caravan with Puck lounging in a birdcage. Puck notices Guts as he passes by. III - The Advent The film covers the end of Griffith's torture in the Tower of Rebirth to the aftermath of the Eclipse, with the following differences from the manga: * Guts' first duel with Silat is not shown. Instead, the film skips to Silat's ambush of the remaining members of the Band of the Falcon after their first year in exile. * The flashback to Guts' rape at Donovan's hand during his and Casca's first time making love does not occur, and he does not start to strangle Casca. * The Skull Knight's warning about the Eclipse happens shortly after Guts and Casca make love, instead of being the impetus for Guts to rejoin the Falcons. * Rickert's encounters with the Count, Rosine and Puck's circus troupe are written out of the story. * Casca's immobility at the sight of Griffith's crippled body leads Judeau to take the keys from her and unlock the torture mask placed on their former leader himself. Originally, Guts shouts to Casca to give him the keys. * Rather than the Falcons taking Charlotte hostage to escape from the tower, she returns to a separate belfry where she can survey the Falcons in their escape from Wyndham without her. The Falcons ambush the gates and a caravan is prepared for Griffith so he can escape. * The King of Midland does not age considerably after the one year time-skip and simply orders a division of the Midland Army to give chase. Consequently, Corkus' ambush is directed towards the chasing army and the escape goes much more smoothly without the encounters with the Bakiraka assassins. * The flashback to the King's attempt to rape Charlotte does not appear in the film. * Like in the 1997 anime series adaption, Wyald and the Black Dog Knights do not appear in the film, with Zodd's second appearance before the Falcons being written out and the band finding out Griffith's condition on their own. * As Griffith is thrown out of the caravan, he does not imagine what a normal life with Casca could have been like with his disabilities. * Rather than his final words comprising of a failed love confession, Judeau dies in Casca's arms regretting that he ended his life being "all talk". * Before being raped by Femto, Casca is rushed by demons instead of having her sword broken. * When Guts emerges from the lake of blood during the Eclipse, Gaston is already dead. * Guts does not see Casca in the grip of a tentacled apostle. Instead, his encounter with Femto starts with both of his arms free. Guts then has his left arm caught by Borkoff when he tries to reach Casca as Femto begins to rape her. He also yells "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" at Femto as the reborn demon molests Casca. * Guts does not scream Griffith's name when he frees himself from Borkoff and charges Femto. * While Femto is raping Casca, Guts rushes and attempts to stab him, but is stopped by Femto's telekinetic abilities. However, the sheer power of Guts' determination and wrath allows him to force himself forward, almost managing to stab Femto in the eye with a broken sword before being repelled by another surge of the demon's newfound powers. It is only when Guts rushes Femto a second time that apostles pin him down. * In Guts' first encounter with restless spirits, the Skull Knight does not toss to him the thorned sword; Guts takes the knight's thorned sword of his own accord and attacks the spirits until daybreak. His "declaration of war" is also cut down considerably. * The film covers the story up to before time-skipping to Guts having acquired his prosthetic cannon arm, new black armor and the Dragon Slayer, walking off into the snowy night to go after the apostles and God Hand as the Black Swordsman. * The miscarriage scene with Guts and Casca's deformed demon child, the final night with Casca in Godot's mine, and the fight with the Keeper of the Hounds where Guts uses the Dragon Slayer for the first time are not present in the film. Cast Music |-| Part I OST = |-| Part II OST = |-| Part III OST = Notes * Studio 4°C co-founder and Berserk: The Golden Age Arc producer Eiko Tanaka has expressed an interest in adapting the Lost Children Chapter, hoping to see future animations of Farnese. * Part III - The Advent contains scenes considered too graphic for general audiences; because of this, the theatrical release was edited to obscure some details. The Blu-ray release, however, is uncensored. * The trilogy has earned mostly positive audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes; as of November 16, 2017, part I - The Egg of the King has a rating of 76%, part II - The Battle for Doldrey a rating of 86%, and part III - The Advent a rating of 84%. References External Links * Official film trilogy website Category:Anime Category:Merchandise